All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

If it dies, so do we.

Opening Statement

An almost classic, Sunshine manages to shock, entertain, provoke
thought, and deeply frustrate the viewer. Still, its strength as an intelligent
piece of science fiction makes it worth a trip for genre fans, and there's no
question that it's a timely release.

Facts of the Case

In the distant future, humankind is faced with a potentially unstoppable
problem: the sun is dying out. A permanent winter has swept the face of the
earth, and they can only save themselves by finding a way to restart our own
personal star. This is where the Icarus comes in, a ship designed to fly close
enough to the sun to deliver a massive nuclear payload that will get the sun
burning bright again. The first Icarus flight has failed, and now the crew of
the second ship is on its way. The mission relies heavily on Capa (Cillian
Murphy, Batman Begins), a young
physicist who might even know enough to get the bomb off right.

The Evidence

For the first time in our history, humanity has been faced with the sudden
and sinking realization that our world is not a permanent thing. Just like we
have physical bodies with a set life cycle, our planet, solar system and
universe are also part of a life cycle. For most of us, this is not a fact that
keeps us up at night—after all, things won't change over the next few
decades or centuries. Even more recently, though, scares like global warming and
the holes in the ozone layer have brought nightmarish global catastrophes onto
our doorstep. Science fiction, which has always toyed with the idea of the end
of the world, has needed to change quickly to adapt to this new fear.

Enter Sunshine, a film that takes a premise combining Deep
Impact and Armageddon, then
turns it into a moral thriller. We get almost no glimpses into the actual world
and what has happened as our sun has died. There is no alien threat on our
doorstep, and no funny scientist sidekicks to bring cute comic relief to the
proceedings. While the science is questionable, most of it feels surprisingly
believable, especially for the genre. This science is introduced in a relatively
organic way, such that we never feel like we are being taught fake science for
the advancement of the plot.

Indeed, there's no real conflict for the first few minutes, and when it
begins, it's all driven by moral choices and challenges that the characters
face. If you are on a ship that represents the last hope for the world's
continued existence, you need to be willing to do anything in order to achieve
that goal. The pressure to succeed would be phenomenal, and any small mistake
would mean not only the death of the crew, but the death of everyone in the
world. When the crew decides to travel to the Icarus I, it sets in motion a
chain of events that threatens to shatter them emotionally as much as
physically.

I am really impressed by this development. Through the first half of the
film, the suspense comes from a completely unconventional group of places. Minor
mistakes and misunderstandings drive tensions high and threaten to destroy them.
The crew has to decide how they will make difficult decisions. They also have to
decide whether it's worth sacrificing a small level of humanity to save a world
full of humans. It is fascinating, challenging, and delivered by an exceptional
international cast. Cillian Murphy brings humanity and fragility to the
physicist who is solely responsible for setting off the bomb. The other
characters are equally fascinating, especially Cliff Curtis (Live Free or Die Hard) as a psychologist
who may be the most unstable of the group.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

It is heartbreaking, then, when Sunshine falls apart in the third act.
As though unsatisfied with its intelligent plot, all logic is abandoned in the
last half hour, as the film takes a spiral into "there's a monster in our
ship" territory. Suddenly, all the creativity, intelligence and
plausibility of the film dissolves into violence and nonsense. This is the same
complaint I had with director Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, but I found the shift even
more frustrating this time. All of the moral complexity simply gets tossed out
the window in favor of tired thrills and chills, which worked well in Alien but have long since gone
stale. The film is still worth watching for both science fiction and horror
fans, but it isn't the revelation that it could have been.

Fox has done a fine job with the disc, although I have to speculate from the
compressed test DVD that I received. The video transfer is sharp and clean,
though, and the black levels will be very good (and important) on the final
transfer. The sound is fantastic, though, using all channels and the LFE to
excellent effect. There are quite a number of special features, including a
commentary from Danny Boyle and one by a young Dr. Cox, a physicist that acted
as a scientific consultant on the film. It's a great track, because it discusses
the science in the film without ignoring the fact that it is ultimately designed
to be entertainment. It's well worth a listen. There are a number of deleted
scenes as well, and a production diary that looks at the making of the film. For
fans, there's certainly no shortage of things to check out. Finally, there are
some short films, which Boyle has included as a chance to boost some young
filmmakers. It's a cool thing to do, and a thing I would love to see more often
on DVDs.

Closing Statement

I'm a bit torn with this recommendation. On one hand, Sunshine is one
of the better science fiction films I've seen in quite a while. It has an
intelligent plot, decent science, good special effects, and some great twists
and turns. On the other hand, all of those strengths are betrayed at the end,
through one of the most disappointing twists in recent film. I am still going to
recommend the film, but more for what it could have been than for what it truly
is.